Employee management

ABSTRACT

Among other things, at least part of an organizational chart of an enterprise is displayed to a manager, the displayed organizational chart including employee positions and their relationships, and elements are displayed on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked by the manager to perform actions with respect to the employee positions.

BACKGROUND

This description relates to employee management.

A person who manages other people in a business, for example, istypically charged with a variety of human resource tasks. These mayinclude performance reviews, goals setting, salary and bonusallocations, filling open positions, training assignments, andsuccession planning, for the people who are positioned below the managerin the organizational chart of the business. To perform one or more ofthese tasks, the manager may invoke software processes of a softwareapplication running on his workstation. The software application mayalso enable the manager to view the organizational chart in variousdisplay styles.

SUMMARY

In general, in an aspect, at least part of an organizational chart of anenterprise is displayed to a manager, the displayed organizational chartincluding employee positions and their relationships, and elements aredisplayed on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked bythe manager to perform actions with respect to the employee positions.

Implementations may include one or more of the following features.Displaying at least part of an organizational chart includes displayinginformation about the status of at least one of the positions. Thestatus includes displaying at least one of: planned but not authorized,authorized but not filled, and filled. The actions include viewinginformation about the position. The actions include at least one ofplanning a position, budgeting for a position, requisitioning a personfor a position, and reviewing candidates for a position. Displaying atleast part of an organizational chart includes displaying informationabout a particular person who occupies one of the positions. Displayingthe elements that can be invoked includes displaying the elementsvisually in association with employee positions to which they relate.The displaying of at least part of an organizational chart and thedisplaying of elements are determined based on a role being played bythe manager. The manager is enabled to control a style in which theorganizational chart is displayed, including a chart style, and a treestyle. A control element is displayed that enables the manager to togglebetween displaying information about a position and information aboutactions that can be taken to change a status of the position.

In general, in an aspect, a user interface paradigm includes a displayto a manager of at least part of an organizational chart of anenterprise, the displayed organizational chart including employeepositions and their relationships, and a display to the manager ofelements on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked bythe manager to perform actions with respect to the employee positions.

Other aspects of the invention may include other combinations of one ormore of the aspects and features recited above and other aspects andfeatures, expressed as methods, apparatus, systems, and programproducts, and in other ways, as will become apparent from the followingdescription and from the claims.

DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1 through 16 and 18 through 21 are screen shots.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram.

As shown in FIG. 1, a portal page 10 of a user interface to a softwareapplication for a manager offers manager navigation buttons 12 that areselected to enable him to see information and perform functions thatrelate to a role that he performs in the enterprise. In the example,shown in FIG. 1, the portal page is for the role of a hiring manager,Robert Alamar, the director of finance. The functions and views offeredby the buttons include a dashboard 14, a view of the manager's team 16,a way to requisition new people 18, a view of information aboutcandidates 20, and a general contacts function 22. The buttons (andhence the subsequent views that can be invoked by the manager) can beselected based on functions and tasks that are available from theunderlying software application, on choices made by the manager toconfigure his interface, and in other ways.

The dashboard view 24 provides panes that display to the managerinformation about (and enable him to perform) hiring tasks to be done26, requisitions 28, candidates 30, and others 27. The requisitions andcandidates panes display top level numerical status information 29 aboutthe numbers of requisitions and candidates that have certain respectivestatuses, for example, of 146 candidates under consideration, 24 haveevaluations pending, one has an interview pending, and six have offerspending. Each task pane 28, 30 includes a box 32 in which a query can beentered to locate requisitions or candidates and a link 34 to displayrecently viewed records.

The particular panes that are displayed on the dashboard view willdepend on the information needed and tasks to be done for the roleplayed by the manager to whom they are presented, in this case the roleof the manager being as a hiring manager. As will be seen later, RobertAlamar is the director of finance of the enterprise. In that position,he could have a variety of different roles. The particular role forwhich the dashboard view of FIG. 1 applies is as a person who hirespeople for his group.

The particular panes that are displayed also depend on the availableinformation and functions provided by the software application thatunderlies the dashboard view. In addition, among a larger set ofavailable panes, the manager who uses the dashboard can control theselection of panes to be displayed, and their layout and style.

When the team button 16 is invoked by the manager, a team window 40 isdisplayed as shown in FIG. 2. The team window displays to the managerinformation about a set of employee positions of the enterprise, in thiscase including the position (Director of Finance) of the manager himself41 and of the positions of the people who are situated below him on theorganizational chart of the finance department.

In the team window, icons 42, 44, and 46 and associated radio buttons 48enable the manager to choose the graphical organization of the view ofhis team, either as an organizational chart 50, a tree, or a table.

As shown in FIG. 2, the organizational chart 50 is displayed as ahierarchically arranged set of panels 52, each panel related to oneemployee. In some examples (not shown), a panel would relate to a groupof positions of people who work under a manager and that group panelcould be toggled to roll down and roll up hidden parts of theorganizational chart under that group panel. Connecting lines 54 on theorganizational chart 50 indicate reporting relationships among employeesin the typical way.

The organizational chart represents the positions and theirrelationships in the enterprise hierarchy. The status of a position maychange over time. The position may be, for example, planned but not yetbudgeted, budgeted but not yet filled (open), or filled. When a positionis filled, the panel 52 may show the name 53, title 55, and photograph57 of the employee who occupies the existing position on the chart.

In some cases, if the existing position is not filled, the panel 60 isdisplayed in a different color and indicated by an Open flag 56. Anunfilled position panel shows the position title 61 and either arequisition 62 that has been opened or an indication 64 that norequisition has been authorized, but the position has been budgeted.Alternatively, for example, the position could be shown as planned butnot yet opened.

In general, the organizational charts of the kind described here areactive charts that enable the manager to do more than merely look atdifferent portions of an organizational structure to see the positionsin the structure and who occupies the positions. The organizationalcharts described here also enable the manager to perform personnelmanagement tasks associated with one or more of the positions or ofpeople who occupy them by directly invoking links that are graphicallyassociated with the people or positions. Invoking the links leadsdirectly to activities or information useful in the manager's role orroles.

Because the organizational chart is active, it can effectively serve asa user interface paradigm much as the Microsoft Windows desktop paradigmserves as a general interface to applications managed by the operatingsystem. In the organizational chart paradigm, the manager can relyalmost entirely on the window that displays the organizational chart asa mode of using the processes of the software application. The user isable to align his understanding of the structure of the organizationthat he manages directly with the functions that he may need to performand the information that he may need to obtain with respect to positionsin that organization, rather than needing to learn a set of interfacesthat are directed to the functions while using the organizational chartonly occasionally as a passive chart.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the manager can take actions withrespect to unfilled positions in the organizational structure. Inaddition to obtaining additional information by invoking a link 70titled info and navigating to the list of tasks (similar to the listshown in pane 26 of FIG. 1) using the link labeled my tasks 72, themanager can click on the actions links 74 or 76.

When an info link is invoked, a list 78 (as shown in FIG. 3) drops downto identify categories 80 of information available to the manager in thecontext of the role that is represented by the interface at the currenttime. Other examples of information that may be available include salaryand performance information as shown in FIG. 21. The categories ofinformation depend both on the manager's role for which the interface isconfigured and on the available information in the underlying database.If the manager invokes one of the categories on the list, thatinformation is displayed on the screen. For example, if the ViewRequisition entry were invoked, the requisition associated with theposition would be displayed as shown in FIG. 18.

As shown in FIG. 4, when the actions link 74 is invoked, a drop downlist 80 identifies actions that may be taken by invoking an entry 82 onthe drop down list. The selection of available actions depends, as inFIG. 3, not only on the actions that are available from the softwareapplication but also on the context of the manager's role that is activein the interface.

In the example shown, by invoking the Add New Position Reporting toFinance Manager item, the manager is taken to a process in theapplication that enables a new position to be added to theorganizational chart as shown in FIG. 19. In general, whenever aninvocation by the manager of a link that leads to windows in whichinformation is presented or the features of a process of the softwareapplication can be used, the interface automatically (or by invocationof a link by the manager) returns to the organizational chart paradigmwhen the manager is finished using the information or working with thefeatures.

Enabling the manager to build and manage the organizational chartdirectly in this way, and to navigate back and forth from theorganizational chart paradigm to other informational and action screens,emphasizes to the manager the paradigmatic nature of the interface. Thatis, he can not only use the organizational chart interface fornavigation through the functional features of the application, but healso can create and manage the structure, positions, and people of thechart itself.

FIG. 5 shows the drop down list 84 that appears when the “my tasks” linkis invoked. The list of tasks 86 is a shortened version of the task listshown in FIG. 1. When any of the items on the task list is invoked inFIG. 5, more detailed information about the task is revealed. FIG. 20shows other examples of tasks, including tasks related to compensationand performance.

When the user invokes the tree display style 44, the information aboutthe organizational chart is portrayed as a hierarchical list 88 as shownin FIG. 6. The root entry 90 at the top of the list represents themanager, Robert Alamar. Each position is shown in a compact panel 92 inthe list. The information displayed in a panel is similar to but morecompact than the information shown in a corresponding panel of FIGS. 2through 5. For example, icons 87 correspond to the icons on earlierfigures. The hierarchical levels of the list can be rolled up and rolleddown by invoking + and − icons 93 in much the same way that portions offolder structures displayed by operating systems can be rolled up androlled down.

FIG. 7 shows similar information in the form of a table 95 (which isdisplayed when the table icon 46 is invoked) containing fields for title97, reporting to 99, requisition ID 101, candidates 103, and tasks 105.Within the table view, the selection of which records are displayed canbe determined by the manager by invoking one or another of the choicesin a drop down list 94. For example, by invoking Open Positions 107, thetable is limited to positions that have not been filled (as in the tableshown in FIG. 7).

Some examples of an interface useful for a manager also could includefeatures for building and managing the representation of all or aportion of an organizational structure.

For example, as shown in FIG. 8, a portal page 100 for a CEO, LynnHobart, could include panes similar to the ones shown in FIG. 1. Byinvoking the My Team button 102, the manager is taken to the display,shown in FIG. 9, of the organizational chart 104 in which she is in theroot position. (in some figures the silhouette images 115 representspecific people whose photographs are not available).

Graphical elements shown on FIG. 9 allow the manager to navigate andperform functions that help to render the organizational chart activeand to serve as a user interface paradigm. For example, if the mangerhovers over the down arrow icon 108 below a position panel 110, amessage 111 is displayed (FIG. 10) indicating a number of additionalpositions that lie immediately below the position associated with theelement 108. Clicking on the element 108 produces the display shown inFIG. 11 of the portion of the organizational chart that has at its topthe position of FIG. 9 from which the screen of FIG. 11 was reached, andunder it the positions that are under that top-level position in theorganizational structure.

The up arrow 112 in FIG. 11 can be invoked to return to the display ofFIG. 10, that is to the portion of the display that shows at its rootthe position above Robert Alamar, and also shows the rest of thepositions under the new root position.

Referring again to FIG. 9, a panel that represents a position that isnot currently filled can be displayed differently to enable the managerto invoke other functions associated with the status of the position.For example, the panel 114 that relates to Maria Josephs is shown withan offset underlying box 116 and a small diagonal arrow 118. As shown inFIG. 12, hovering over the arrow causes the message 120 “Toggle torequisition associated with this position” to appear. Clicking on thearrow causes the underlying box 116 to be displayed overlying the panel114, as shown in FIG. 13. The box 116 displays information about theposition 117 and a link 119, in this example, to a requisition for theposition. A tag 122 associated with the box 116 identifies the positionas In Process and that a Draft of the requisition exists. The arrow 118in FIG. 9 can be toggled to switch between the overlay of FIG. 9 and thereverse overlay of FIG. 13.

Other kinds of information and other tags could be displayed inconnection with the box 116.

By clicking on the question mark icon 124 to the right of the wordDraft, the manager can view a help message 125 (FIG. 14) explaining whatis meant by Draft.

Returning to FIG. 13, by hovering over the clipboard icon 126 next tothe question mark icon, the manager can see (FIG. 15) a message 128indicating actions that the manager can take, in this case, viewing therequisition. By clicking on the available action description, themanager is taken to that process of the software application.

In addition to being In Process, a position can be identified as Planned129 and Budgeted (FIG. 16). Hovering over the clipboard 130 of such aposition triggers a message 132 to be displayed that enables, forexample, to request a requisition in accordance with the budget.

The identities and numbers of items that can be displayed as helpmessages, actions, and in other ways in the panels, panes, and windowsof the interface can vary and can depend on available features of theunderlying software application, available information in a database,roles played by the manager, and preferences expressed by the manager.

As shown in FIG. 17, the techniques described above can be implementedusing typical, generally available software, hardware, database, andcommunication platforms. A server (or multiple servers) 202 run asoftware application 206 that includes processes 208 that providefunctions and information to managers useful in managing employees in anenterprise. The software application may in some implementations be runon user devices instead or on a combination of user devices and serversin a client-server mode. The software application creates, manages, anduses information in a database 210 that can be located with the serveror servers, coupled to them, or located remotely and accessed by anycommunication link 203. The database itself may be distributed orcentrally located.

The database contains, among other information, organizationalinformation 212 that includes positions in an enterprise 214, theirconnections 216, actions that can be performed with respect to thepositions 218, status of the positions 220; display information that candefine the styles 224 of display elements, and their arrangement andpresentation; information 226 about the managers who use the systemincluding their roles 228, their permissions 230, and details abouttheir registrations 236 to use the system; personnel records of theusual kind maintained by an enterprise 234; and other information.

The server is accessible to user devices 238, 240, 242 through one ormore communication links including networks 236 such as local areanetworks, wide area networks, and publicly accessible networks,including the Internet. Each of the user devices presents an interface244, for example, interfaces of the kind described above that includeorganizational chart paradigms. The user devices can be workstations,notebook computers, and telephones and other hand-held devices. Each ofthe devices can be used by one or more managers 246, 248, 250.

Other implementations are also within the scope of the claims.

For example, the manager may be permitted to access and work withportions or all of organizational charts for positions and people thathe does not manage. For instance, a human resources manager may havepermission to see and take actions with respect to any part of theorganizational chart of an enterprise.

1. A method comprising displaying to a manager at least part of anorganizational chart of an enterprise, the displayed organizationalchart including employee positions and their relationships, displayingelements on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked bythe manager to perform actions with respect to the employee positions.2. The method of claim 1 in which displaying at least part of anorganizational chart includes displaying information about the status ofat least one of the positions.
 3. The method of claim 2 in which thestatus includes displaying at least one of: planned but not authorized,authorized but not filled, and filled.
 4. The method of claim 1 in whichthe actions include viewing information about the position.
 5. Themethod of claim 1 in which the actions include at least one of planninga position, budgeting for a position, requisitioning a person for aposition, and reviewing candidates for a position.
 6. The method ofclaim 1 in which displaying at least part of an organizational chartincludes displaying information about a particular person who occupiesone of the positions.
 7. The method of claim 1 in which displaying theelements that can be invoked includes displaying the elements visuallyin association with employee positions to which they relate.
 8. Themethod of claim 1 in which the displaying of at least part of anorganizational chart and the displaying of elements are determined basedon a role being played by the manager.
 9. The method of claim 1 alsoenabling the manager to control a style in which the organizationalchart is displayed, including a chart style, and a tree style.
 10. Themethod of claim 1 including displaying a control element that enablesthe manager to toggle between displaying information about a positioninformation and information about actions that can be taken to change astatus of the position.
 11. A method comprising displaying to a managerat least part of an organizational chart of an enterprise, the displayedorganizational chart including (a) employee positions and theirrelationships, (b) information about the status of at least one of thepositions, the status including at least one of: planned but notauthorized, authorized but not filled, and filled information, and (c)information about a particular person who occupies one of the positions,displaying elements on the displayed organizational chart that can beinvoked by the manager to perform actions with respect to the employeepositions, the actions including at least two of: viewing informationabout the position, planning a position, budgeting for a position,requisitioning a person for a position, and reviewing candidates for aposition, the elements being displayed visually in association withemployee positions to which they relate, and the displaying of at leastpart of an organizational chart and the displaying of elements beingdetermined based on a role being played by the manager.
 12. An apparatuscomprising storage for information about positions of an organizationalchart and actions that can be taken with respect to the positions, and aprocessor configured to display to a manager (a) at least part of anorganizational chart of an enterprise, the displayed organizationalchart including employee positions and their relationships, and (b)elements on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked bythe manager to perform the actions with respect to the employeepositions.
 13. A medium bearing instructions to cause a processor todisplay to a manager (a) at least part of an organizational chart of anenterprise, the displayed organizational chart including employeepositions and their relationships, and (b) elements on the displayedorganizational chart that can be invoked by the manager to perform theactions with respect to the employee positions, and enable the managerto perform the actions.
 14. A user interface paradigm comprising adisplay to a manager of at least part of an organizational chart of anenterprise, the displayed organizational chart including employeepositions and their relationships, and a display to the manager ofelements on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked bythe manager to perform actions with respect to the employee positions.